Almost every spring that we lived in Illinois my father would drive to a river or two where flooding had been reported. Either he was fascinated by the event or took pleasure in seeing it. Sometimes I thought he liked witnessing the misfortune of people who lived along the river, whose houses and land were flooded. Anyway, these drives were nice because they were times when he was cheerful and enjoyed exploring new places and seeing things with his family. The Kishwaukee and Rock Rivers were his favorites and you could always count on them for some good flooding. Sometimes we'd drive pretty far--he liked to go for drives in the country.
After I moved here I figured out why he was so interested in spring flooding. It's a big deal here. Every night on the news they report which rivers (and Lake Champlain) are near flood level, how many feet they are from flood level, and which roads are closed or dangerous. Sort of like an invitation to curiosity seekers like my father to hurry up, get in your car and get out there to take a look.
The AuSable River runs through the middle of AuSable Forks and very, very often runs over its banks when the ice goes out or the snowmelt comes down from the mountains. Right now the river is very high and the news reported some flooding in the Forks. Lake Champlain has reached flood level as well. Sometimes when this happens and the ice is just going out the water will deposit huge (I mean HUGE) chunks of ice on land, often in people's yards. The ice will be 1-2 feet thick and the chunks are sometimes 10 feet wide. I've always been happy not to live near a river. Some people get flooded out over and over but still live next to the river.
People do the same thing my father did in the Midwest--go for drives to check out the rivers. Running the roads is a year-round pastime here, but traffic really picks up in the spring. No, REALLY picks up. Especially Sunday afternoons. The road in front of Ken's gets really busy. Really busy being a relative term, of course.
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